Schools chief Davis embraces King legacy

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Sunday, January 16, 2005

"There is no greater speech or document that can model the power of a vision than his 'I Have A Dream' speech. It speaks to each person," said Davis. The 57-year-old educator said those powerful words move people to achieve goals and acknowledge their personal growth. "That leadership dynamic made it clear to so many people even after his death."

Davis was 21 years old when King was assassinated.

"I first heard it on the radio," Davis said. He was attending a junior college and working a second shift as a maintenance worker. "I saw all the black men were upset. Then I saw the white foreman say, 'They finally got one.' I'll never forget that."

The words stung Davis - they were a sharp reminder of how deep racism runs.

Although he grew up in the North, his parents were from Mississippi where Davis was born. His father was a WWII veteran and when the war ended, the family migrated north to find work.

But every summer, Davis and his family went to Mississippi to visit his grandparents.

"That's when we would see the segregated bathrooms, movie theaters and the buses," said Davis, whose recollections go back to when he was a 10-year-old boy. "We only saw that in the summer time."

Although things were different in Wisconsin, the Davis family lived in an ethnic neighborhood and people were expected to live among their own kind in ghettos - and black people couldn't vote there, either.

Davis thrived on a strong faith in God and attended a Baptist church.

"We learned about Martin Luther King and civil rights in Sunday school," Davis said. "There was nothing said in school."

His parents impressed on him the importance of King's message - that every person had the right to vote, the right to own property. Despite their conditions, they had hope in King's promise "that these things were going to change," he said.

Davis said a strong faith and belief in God helped shape who King was.

"He found the courage without fear. To do what he was called on to do. How many people rise to that occasion and do what he did?" Davis asked.

"He made this country confront their own beliefs about people, as it reads in the Constitution," Davis said. "He didn't bring anything to the political structure that wasn't already there. You can't be a great nation and deny rights to a large part of the population. All of the basics - things that define freedom - were denied to black people."

Davis, who formerly served as the schools superintendent in Hartford, is in his second year in Danbury. The long-time educator believes that learning about King in school today is as important as ever.

"When we talk about the future of our country, kids need to know that future is guaranteed if we have a stronger knowledge of the past - so we don't repeat the past," Davis said. "Kids need to learn that freedom isn't really free - and people made a lot of sacrifices."

Davis also said that young people need to listen to those who have experienced the civil rights movement and to read about the era and reflect on what it really meant to people then - and now.

In Danbury, Davis said, students are taught who King was, what he did in the Montgomery bus boycott, the 1963 March on Washington and his non-violent protests - significant themes in King's life.

There are books on King in the schools' libraries and schools across the city dedicate bulletin boards to King in January. "You'd be hard-pressed to go into any classroom and ask who Dr. King is and not get an answer," Davis said. "They know what he stood for."

Davis still educates himself on the famous civil rights leader and remembers him especially this time each year.

A week ago, he attended a breakfast celebration given by the New Hope Baptist Church youth group in Danbury. Yesterday, he spoke at the 10 a.m. service at St. James Church and later attended a community program at New Hope.

Before coming to Danbury, he and his family went to an annual breakfast attended by more than 1,000 people who came to listen to a speaker talk about King's contributions.

Davis said not a birthday goes by that he doesn't commemorate.

"Hopefully I'll always do that," Davis said.

He even reads something written by or about King every year - most recently a letter that King wrote from a Birmingham jail in response to criticism by local ministers.

"He points out he's not an outsider (as they criticized)," Davis said. "He also says no one in America can be an outsider when you're talking about injustice. .�.�. It is a powerful piece that he wrote.